Still a way to go on digital by default

06 July 2015

The Director of the Government Digital Service has acknowledged that while government services are now much more uniform than they have been, there are still far too many ways digital interactions with the state could vary, potentially leading to user frustration.

As director of the Government Digital Service (GDS) since 2011, Bracken has overseen Whitehall's efforts to introduce a single platform for online services - GOV.UK - and brought in the Digital By Default Service Standard to try and ensure common standards across government.

Under that Standard, departments offering services through GOV.UK should also come up with an “appropriate plan to phase out non-digital" channels and services, encouraging a process known as “channel shift”. But Bracken recently told the Policy Exchange think tank that he believed there was still some way to go before government could start switching off traditional services in favour of their online equivalents.

Interestingly in another Civil Service World article published in early June, GDS confirmed that its framework will be completely redesigned after complaints from users. Tony Singleton, director of the digital commercial programme at GDS, said that user feedback meant that it would be changing its approach to the third iteration of the framework, due to launch later this year.